Courtesy photo Clockwise, from left: Marcia Armogost, Williston Middle School principal; Jeremy Mehlhoff, elementary assistant principal; Andrea Finders, Rickard Elementary School teacher; and Sandra Opperud, Lewis and Clark Elementary School principal, work on their part of a strategic plan June 5 for Williston Public School District 1. Several people gathered at Williston Community Library that day to hammer out the plan.
Is excellence when students graduate from high school, or when they move on from the elementary level to the middle school level? And excellence may not just be students moving on to a new chapter in their lives.
“We have a nice vision, but what is excellence for us?” said superintendent Viola LaFontaine.
Part of the school district’s strategic plan is to articulate a common vision to define excellence and set bars at each level — elementary, middle school and high school. Seven other goals make up the plan, and the school board is to consider final approval of the plan on July 30.
The purpose of the strategic plan is to address existing and/or potential issues the district faces in the next five or more years. On June 5, school officials and members of the community gathered at the Williston Public Library to produce the plan with help from Marv Erhardt, former executive director of the North Dakota Leadership Educational Administration Development (LEAD) Center in Bismarck. He has a consulting business Discovery Consulting. One of the urgent goals in the plan is to complete a short-term and long-term facility plan.
“We have very immediate needs,” LaFontaine said.
The roofs at Rickard, Lewis and Clark and Wilkinson elementary schools need to be replaced, and the roof at Hagan Elementary School needs minor repairs. The elementary schools have portable buildings outside of their permanent buildings for temporary space relief, but they’ve been there for several years. Decisions are needed regarding possibly permanently expanding the buildings for space, LaFontaine said.
Part of the goal is to have the facility plan ready by July 2010. School officials need to determine where the money is to come from for the projects, she said.
Another goal is to set a process and plan for recruitment and retention of high-quality teachers. People assigned to work on this plan are to address whether the salaries offered for teaching positions are on par, what it costs to buy a home in Williston and what entices people to move to the community, among other issues.
LaFontaine has heard there isn’t much to offer for singles in the area; if teachers don‘t move to Williston with spouses and/or children, there isn’t a lot for them to do. That issue must be addressed as well. The goal is to have that plan in place by the start of the 2012-2013 school year.
The final strategic plan is to outline what it takes to reach the goals, who all is assigned to each goal and the deadlines. Once it’s approved by the board, it is to be available to the public, LaFontaine said.
She wants the public to know it’s the intention of the people working on the strategic plan to get started on each goal as soon as possible. The reason some goals have later deadlines is because it takes longer to get them accomplished.
Other goals are consistency in policies throughout the district, articulating curriculum, implementing a district-wide professional development plan, implementing systems addressing societal problems affecting students and addressing gaps in communication throughout the district and community.
The school board meets at 5:15 p.m. July 30 at the district office, 1201 9th Ave. N.W. in Williston.
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